Foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 36,958 Oregon properties for 2010, up 8 percent from a year ago and 105 percent above the level reported for 2008, according to the RealtyTrac® Year-End 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 2,794 Oregon properties in December 2010, a 13 percent increase from November, but still 34 percent below the level reported in December 2009. One in every 583 Oregon housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

“Oregon foreclosure activity heated up considerably in 2010 to a level well above what was reported for 2009 and more than double what was reported for 2008,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “With that said, the state’s economy appears to be improving from last year, which should eventually lead to a drop in foreclosure activity. While unemployment within the state remains high at 9.4 percent, that figure has dropped drastically from this time last year when joblessness was a staggering 10.6 percent.”

One in every 44 Oregon housing units received a foreclosure filing in 2010, the 12th highest state foreclosure rate in the nation for the year.

Deschutes County posts state’s top foreclosure rate in 2010

DeschutesCounty posted the highest foreclosure rate in Oregon in 2010, with one in every 17 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing — 2.6 times the state average. CrookCounty came in second, with one in every 27 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in 2010 — 1.6 times the state average. The third highest was JeffersonCounty, where one in every 29 housing units received a foreclosure filings during the year — 1.5 times the state average.

Multnomah County led the state in foreclosure activity in 2010

MultnomahCounty led Oregon in foreclosure activity, reporting 6,645 properties with foreclosure filings. Washington County had the second highest foreclosure total, with 4,701 properties with foreclosure filings. Deschutes County was third highest, reporting 4,502 properties with foreclosure filings for the year. Clackamas County came in fourth, tallying 4,120 properties with foreclosure filings. Fifth highest total for the year was in Jackson County, where 2,857 properties with foreclosure filings were reported.

State a minor contributor to total foreclosure activity in 2010

Oregon accounted for 1 percent of the 2,871,891 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide for 2010. Total U.S. activity increased by almost 2 percent from 2009, and was more than 23 percent above the level reported in 2008. One in every 45 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the year.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the RealtyTrac database during the month — broken out by type of filing by state, county and metropolitan statistical area. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during the month may have been recorded in previous months. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default—Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is received for a property during the month, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.